NIGEL Farage has vowed that Ukip will bring immigration levels "back to normality" after announcing there will be no "arbitrary target" on annual net migration figures.

Ukip MEP Steven Woolfe will propose the suspension of visas for unskilled migrants for five years

Mr Farage declared that under his party's plans for a points-based immigration system, just 27,000 people would have been granted entry to Britain last year.

The Ukip leader added it would "very unlikely that we would need 50,000 people" as a figure for an immigration cap - despite the party's spokesman on the issue, MEP Steve Woolfe, committing to introducing a 50,000 cap on net annual immigration just last week.

"Actually, that's a very high number because 27,000 is the number that would have qualified under the Australian-style points system.

"What we are saying is this: we want an end to uncontrolled mass immigration, an end to unskilled labour coming into Britain in vast quantities.

"We already have a huge stock of migrant labour in this country and a lot of British people who themselves are struggling to find work."

Mr Farage added: "I get a bit tired of being told that all British workers, particularly young ones, are lazy, useless and can't be bothered.

"Does that lead to more congestion, does it mean a more overcrowded country, does it mean longer waiting times at accident and emergency, does it mean fewer places at primary schools? Yes to all of those."

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Mr Farage called the current net migration figures unfair and unethical

Figures released last week showed there was a net flow of 298,000 migrants into Britain in the 12 months to last September - equal roughly to the population of Nottingham and almost three times higher than Prime Minister David Cameron had pledged as a limit in 2010.

Mr Farage this morning told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that his party wants to see immigration numbers similar to those before 2000.

"Normality was what we had from Windrush [when West Indian migrants arrived in the UK in 1948] right up until the year 2000, where we had net migration into Britain ... between 20,000 and 50,000 people a year. That was normality for half a century."

Since then "we have gone mad, we opened the doors to much of the world but in particular we opened up the doors to 10 former communist countries, and as a result of our EU membership we have absolutely zero control over the numbers who come".

Ukip has developed a policy focused around an Australian-style points-based system

Nigel Farage

But he added: "I'm not putting caps or targets ... you need to have more flexibility than that.

"The point is this: we currently have no control over the numbers, we are incapable of debating anything now in politics without caps and targets and I think the British public are bored with it."

Ukip today announced that no more unskilled migrant workers should be allowed into Britain for at least five years.

Urgent measures are required to stop the surge of newcomers that has sent annual net migration soaring to record levels, according to the anti-Brussels party.

But a new “ethical” visa system that does not discriminate between EU and non-EU citizens should also be introduced, it says.

Details of Ukip’s plans for overhauling Britain’s immigration laws were set out today by Mr Woolfe.

The migration spokesman proposed a complete moratorium on visas for unskilled migrants for five years.

The measure should be reviewed annually to monitor its effects.

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Steven Woolfe will make the keynote speech on immigration

The points-based immigration system that Ukip proposed will be based on the Australian model under which any applicant who qualifies as a “highly skilled worker” would be issued with a visa for up to five years.

After that period, they would be entitled to apply for permanent leave to remain in the UK provided they have not broken the law.

They would be expected to have health insurance to cover their entire visa period and would not be entitled to claim any welfare benefits.

The Ukip plan, to be included in the party’s election manifesto, comes after official statistics last week revealed that net migration reached nearly 300,000 in the 12 months to September, the highest figure since 2005, despite a pledge by David Cameron to keep numbers each year under 100,000.

In a keynote speech in London Mr Woolfe said: "Immigration is not an issue that will go away.

"It is the number one issue for many millions of Britons.”

Ukip leader Nigel Farage added: "The British public has acknowledged that they can’t trust the other parties to be serious on immigration.

"Despite Mr Cameron’s pledge, net migration is now up to 300,000 people per year.

"It is unsustainable, unfair, and unethical.

"That is why Ukip has developed a policy focused around an Australian-style points-based system, led by a newly formed Migration Control Commission, tasked with bringing numbers down, and focusing on highly skilled migrants and our Commonwealth friends – as opposed to the low-skilled, Eastern European migration that the Tories and Labour have expanded."

Home Secretary Theresa May declared yesterday that the Tories remain committed to reaching the target in the long term.